4 Unschooling Tips to Get off the Educational Conveyor Belt
The podcast started in March of 2021, and we haven’t made too many changes - still short 10 minutes or so! I remember CLEARLY how busy life is when you have the kids home with you.!
It’s kind of funny, when I’m recording these, I envision you sitting at the table with me, having a cup of coffee. Or at a park day, sitting on the playscape with the kids. Talking about how to overcome various fears. Fears we ALL have had at some point of time.
Yes, my three are already grown.
But man. Those fears. I remember them clearly.
Maybe I remember them because year after year, other moms and dads have expressed exactly the same ones.
- Fear that our choices will ruin the kids chances for success.
- Fear that unschooling is just a little TOO unconventional.
- Fear about gaps in the kids learning.
- Fear about doing something that no one else in our family has done.
But then... here’s the part that makes it hard.
What do you do when you know what you’re doing isn’t working?
How far out there do you want to go?
What do you do when your kid is miserable, or not learning, or bored out of their mind?
What do you do when unschooling feels so right in your heart, but your spouse or your mom is freaking out?
What do you do when you feel time ticking, and that you have to weigh this out and make a decision?
Because not to decide is to decide, right?
It’s a decision in favor of the status quo.
It’s safe.
No one will fault you for doing what so many others have done: wring their hands, badmouth the schools, tell the kids to do their best, and just let time march on. Eventually they’ll graduate, right? And all this angst you’re feeling...it will be behind you.
Maybe.
I hear from some parents who say,
“I wish I had figured this out sooner.”
Or
“Our lives are so much better now that we’re unschooling, I wish I had been brave enough to unschool my older kids.”
We do the best we can with the information we have at the time, right?
But I’m handing you some solutions. And, if you’re listening to this podcast, you can’t say you’ve never heard of unschooling or how other families have made it work.
I think it’s because we have had all those years in school and it was like a conveyor belt. We could put in a little effort (or maybe not even) and the belt would move us along. From one teacher to the next. From one grade to the next. Onto adulthood. Whether we retained what we learned or not didn’t really matter. Passing the test on Friday…. Then letting it all go. That was most people’s experience. Sure, we had a few good teachers here and there. Or, they seemed good compared to some of the others we had! Maybe it’s all relative. But we remember a little about what they talked about. ANd, if we actually use it in our adult lives or we had some interest in it, we retained it. But most of it fell by the wayside.
So here we are. The grown-ups in charge.
And we have to make decisions for our kids and our lives.
4 Unschooling Tips
I have 4 things I want you to know - I think it may help:
- You DO have the courage to do this. Yes, it will be different. And the voices in your head will rise up to make you doubt. But I have a ton of resources to support you. You don’t have to do this alone.
- Unschooling really does work.
Kids don’t have to jump through all the hoops that schools have convinced us are necessary to be “successful” in life… whatever that means. Usually for a lot of people it means, getting into college, finding a career, being happy. Unschooled kids do all those things. School or the school approach was NOT the only answer. My own three kids are living proof of this - I’ll link to
Podcast #55 about what my Grown Unschooled Kids Did Not Learn. It’s one of the more popular podcasts. I think I’ll so see which other podcasts were the most popular. Here are the links I promised I'd find for you:
🎙 What is Unschooling?
🎙 Unschooling and Math
🎙 Almost Unschooling
🎙 Your Unschooling Curriculum - Doors will not close
if you choose to unschool. In fact, more doors will open for your kids! They will have had a childhood where you helped them learn more about themselves, how they like to learn, what they like versus what everyone else tells them they should like. AND you get to have a closer relationship with them, helping them navigate their way through.
- You have choices - always. Lastly, sometimes we get immobilized thinking our choices are forever-choices. They’re not. You can choose to get off the conveyor belt - and... get back on if you want. Or see what it’s like to NOT be on it. And then modify as you go. We’ve had a lot of conditioning to not trust ourselves - but you really can do this. And every day offers choices for how you want to live your life.
Get the Unschooling Support You Need!
You should grab the unschooling resources that fit you.
Whether you learn better in a group, or with me 1:1...or you’re more of a DIY type and you like to
I’ve created the scaffolding you need to so you’re not out there flailing around in the breeze.
All you have to do is reach out. You can email me and describe what’s going on, and I can help point you in the direction to find what will fit you. I have no big agenda to sell you on a bunch of stuff. I just want you to be successful. And I want you to see that unschooling is an option that will work.
And... if you’re already in the membership group, be sure you’re tapping into everything there.
The coaching calls (even the recordings if you can’t make it) the private membership portal with resources to help you overcome... whatever is bothering you. The various platforms to connect with other unschooling parents.
And if you’re not in the group, you can always join for just a few months - or longer if you want to save a little money.
So...that’s plenty for this week - our wrap of of Season 2 of the Unschooling Mom2Mom podcast.
I hope it’s been helpful.
Let me know if you have topics you’d like me to discuss. Share the podcasts you like on social media and help other parents see that they have options too. I’ll add unschooling resource links to the show notes and here on the blog.
And I’ll be back again next week with Season 3! Where I am going to try to get back onto WEEKLY podcasts.
So here I am, even with my little cold, recording away!
I’m even going to start uploading some of these to the
Unschooling Mom2Mom YouTube channel.
Take care - and enjoy your kids!
